Break Point
by AnonnyMousie
Summary: Leo's got nothing left to lose when Tiger Claw captures the brothers in a mission gone wrong. Sealed within a cell, Leo is presented with everything he's ever loved in front of him, and then faced with his ultimate fear-losing it all. Nothing will hold back Fearless after all is said and done.
1. Donnie

Donnie

Blood had smeared onto the wall from Leo's hand as he propped himself up in his cell. Tiger Claw had captured him and knocked him out cold so he couldn't even guess where in the state of New York he was, or if he even was in New York at all.  
Taking in his surroundings, he immediately took notice on how he couldn't extend himself to his full height. The back of his shell pressed uncomfortably into the rounded ceiling. The cell itself was not large. Enough for him to sit cross-legged, but not more than that. He'd have to sleep inside his shell for any kind of comfort.

"Slept well, turtle?"

Leo's eyes were immediately drawn to the stronger source of light coming from what he could guess to be twenty feet away. The voice belonged to Tiger Claw, but his new attention was drawn to what was behind him. What he could use to his advantage to escape and if there was an indication as to where he was. Tiger Claw approached him and held up a thing fabric of cloth silhouetted against the light. It took Leo a moment to realize that it was his mask, and his blood immediately began to run red hot under his skin.  
"Oh? Not more mad than that? Take a closer look, turtle."  
Tiger Claw held it higher, forcing Leo to squint his eyes a bit more at the mask. It didn't really come into focus until blue turned into purple. It was Donnie's band.  
"You..."  
He growled out, teeth gnashed together in absolute fury. "What'd you do to my brother?" A grin flashed across Tiger Claw's face. A deep, absolute hatred began brewing in Leo's gut as his hands white-knuckle gripped the cell bars.  
"ANSWER ME."

Tiger Claw didn't have to. Hidden against the tiger's massive physique was Donatello's staff; which he leaned against the wall and tied his mask onto.

"You didn't..."

"I did. And not before he ratted out where the others are."

"HE WOULDN'T."

Absolute in his defiance, he rattled the bars with all his might in desperate attempt to loosen them. "LET ME OUT OF HERE."  
"Hmph. Don't ask me that as if I'd just hand you the keys, turtle. There aren't any. You see that wall behind you? Well, that's newly made. You've been unconscious for so long, we had time to build an entire wall around you."

White-washed with fear and anxiety, Leo turned around and felt the rough curves of the wall behind him. It was as if someone had hastily poured cement over cinder blocks and let it set haphazardly. They probably did, he deducted. Looking in front of him, he also quickly realized that the bars had no door. They were just that-bars bolted to the ceiling and then floor. Leo had never been one to be claustrophobic, but the idea of being completely and utterly unable to get out terrified him. There literally was no exit, and the bars would never move. The very air suddenly began to suffocate him.

There was no way out.

"Where's my brother."  
His voice nearly betrayed him as he made his demand. Tiger Claw shrugged and grinned. "I could keep the body here if you'd like. But I thought I'd at least do you the courtesy to cremate him. Unless you don't want that..."  
"You're lying."  
"Am I?" Tiger Claw 'tsk'd' him and turned around, motioning towards someone outside. In all his glory strutted in Xever carrying a mutilated Donnie. His outer shell looked to have been clipped away. His head had been cracked open and skin peeled away to show off parts of his skull that glistened with blood in the light.  
Blood.

The putrid stench wafted all the way over to Leo's enclave and caused him to keel over and vomit without warning. "No...no, no, no!" His eyes widened as he looked over at the doorway once more.  
"Was great with this one," Xever mused, tossing Donnie onto the wet floor with a heavy thud. Light cascaded onto his face, revealing larger gaps in his mouth that had initially been there with a heavily swollen lower jaw. Teeth had to be missing. "All his secrets spilled within two minutes. That was no fun at all. The younger one should prove much more enterta-"

"IF YOU TOUCH MIKEY, I'LL END YOU."

Leo bellowed, his throat on fire from the vomit. This wasn't true. This couldn't be happening...Donnie was...Donnie couldn't be.  
"Finish off the other one. We'll be back yet, turtle." Leo's eyes fell upon the limp figure of his brother sprawled out on the ground before him. He wanted to reach out and cradle his younger brother in his arms; to try and rouse him from his eternal slumber and undo the damage wrought onto him. To tell him that it was all his fault. That they shouldn't have gone into Shredder's lair without telling Splinter.

"We'll be back with the other one, don't worry." Xever cackled as he walked out, wiping imaginary tears from his eyes. Tiger Claw looked down at Donnie and pushed his limp arm out of the doorway with his foot before closing the door behind him, darkening the room once more save for a sliver of light that shone from a crack beneath the door. There were no words exchanged between hero and villain. Just a somber silence that welled up so heavily inside Leo's chest that he tried to call out to his brother fervently.  
"Donnie! Donnie, c'mon, bro, stop playing around! We need you, man!" Of course, he didn't move. The small glimmer of light had illuminated only just a portion of Donnie's face.

"DON!"

Nothing. Leo even tried holding his breath to see if he could hear Donnie breathing at all from where he lay. It was fruitless. He was...he was gone.  
And now it was Mikey's turn and he was completely powerless to do anything about it.


	2. Raph

Raph

Leo couldn't eyes were focused on the stray lighting on Donnie. False hope plagued him every so often, and he could swear he could see some movement coming from his brother. Calling out to him, however, brought back the cruel reality that he would never respond back.  
Searching inside his small cell, his hands came across stray pebbles of cement that he could pry off the ground. Aiming it at his brother, he gave it a sharp throw and hit Donnie's cheek before bouncing off into the corner of the room.

"Don! Come on, man..."

Leo's voice quivered as he sank to his knees, holding onto the bars.

"You gotta wake up, bro...you're the smartest of all of us...you can think about how to get us out of here." A lump formed in his throat as he rested his head on the bars, shoulders heaving with distress.

"You always know what to do...we all look up to you for help and strategies and...and...you're one of the best at technological infiltration and I don't know where we'd be without you..."

Leo's hands wiped at his eyes with a growing frustration. Blood from his previous encounter with smeared onto his cheek from his left hand. Tiger Claw had hurt him and brought him here to show him his dead brothers. Why would he do such a thing?

Slinking back into his hunched over position, he closed his eyes and let out a heavy sigh, battling the tears that threatened to fall still.

"I'm sorry, Don...I can't cry for you now, though...I need to get out and save the others, bro...you understand that, right?"

The obvious response was silence.

Damn it all. He couldn't even save himself. How the hell was he going to save the others? He was literally sealed in the confines of his cell. It was almost suffocating, and any further thought towards it he knew he'd spiral into a full-blown panic attack.  
Mustering up his strength once more, he began feeling around for some way out. There had to be a structural weak point somewhere.

"Too bad you can't help me, huh, Don?"

Leo called over his shoulder, his face contorted in a growing sorrow that begin to weight too heavily on his chest.

"You'd know exactly where to find the weakness in this thing."

A forced smile crept onto his face as his breath hitched in his throat. What was he doing talking to his brothers corpse? How was this any comfort to him? Without a doubt, and he looked back to make sure, Donnie was dead. The next thing that crossed Leo's mind was 'did he suffer?' A harsh memory of his clipped off shell and exposed skull proved that he was definitely not treated kindly.

"Probably up until your last breath, huh, Don?"

He was getting desperate now as he kept on poking and prodding different points of the infrastructure until his hand grazed along an exposed piece of metal. Hissing and jerking his hand back suddenly, he cradled it close to him and felt it bubble over with warm blood.

"You'd know how to fix this too..."

He mused, Donnie forever at the forefront of his mind. Once again, he had to shake his mind clear. Now, Raph and Mikey mattered more. They were the ones that were still alive-or so he hoped.

"What do I do, Donnie?"

With a heavy sigh of exasperation, he pressed his forehead into the rough wall.  
"What do I do...?" He echoed his question, half-hoping that Donnie would spring up from the spot and start spewing so much technical jargon that his head would explode.

His fingers pressed into his eyes and he breathed a little more evenly. It hadn't even occurred to him that he had begun to hyperventilate.

"It smells..." Leo sniffed the wall a bit more and felt his heart leap, "wet!" A whoop escaped his mouth as he searched for the sharp item he had touched earlier. There was no way to tell what it was in the darkness, but if the wall still held some moisture, it could be chipped away at, right?

With a bit more coaxing, the piece came free. Leo felt around it as a blind man would to try and identify what it was without much luck. It was triangular, and that's all he could tell. Not one to shirk off his good luck, he stuck the wall with the triangle with as much force as he could muster without cutting his hand like last time. A few good hits and chunks of the wall flew towards him. Curiously, he inspected the pebbles in between his fingers. It was coarse. Not smooth, as cement should be. And it was...flakey?

"Concrete?"

It had to be. If it was, then he would happily chip away at it if it meant saving his brothers. Much to his glee, a majority of it after the first few inches could be scooped out with his hands. Tiger Claw said he had been out for a while, but he had to be bluffing. There was no way the concrete solution would be this wet if it was otherwise.  
He was sailing now.

"Don, you genius, you taught me about that. Remember? We were young, Don! You went on and on about the different kinds of rocks and stuff when Master Splinter got you that amethyst geode for you! Heck, we even found old school books on those things! You were so excited, weren't you? It was boring as heck, but..."

The sounds of footsteps stopped him cold. He rushed to hide his excavation, but he wasn't quick enough. He misjudged the distance of the footfalls and the door soon swung open.

"Aaaand that makes two. We're making quick work of these turtles. I wanted to have fun with this one, but someone decided to deny me that."

Xever spat on the ground as he flung in another body. Leo's heart had leapt into his mouth at the sheer force of the throw. Just beyond his reach lay the square figured Raph. Leo's mouth fell agape. Didn't villains wait to do this? Didn't they spread it out to make it as insufferable as possible for the hero!?  
But Leo wasn't the hero.

"RAPH!"

He instantly fell flat onto his stomach and tried to reach the unreachable. His stomach churned once more as he let out a few more strangled cries. Leo's fingertips wiggled against the tails of Raph's mask. Him being as close as he was, he was able to see his gore-stained body properly. The clarity of it caused his fingers to slip his band off and retch him backwards in a gag. The blood glistened in the light. It was all fresh. He was just killed...

"He thought it would be better if we killed him instead of the little one. So we did."

Leo lost everything else in his stomach. Xever let out a single chuckle and walked over to Raph and gave him a small kick in Leo's direction until he was just up against the cell. He was too enraptured in the whole idea of torturing Leo that he had failed to notice the slowly concaving wall behind the blue-banded turtle.

"The young one will be fun. We're going to roll dice to see who'll have him."

"You monster..." Leo breathed, waiting for Xever to turn his back on them before inspecting Raph once more. There was just...so much blood everywhere. He didn't know where it stemmed from, but he knew that there was just so much of it...

"Raphie.." He reached out to touch him and felt his body was still warm.

"Oh, and one more thing."

Xever hurled Raph's sais towards Leo, hitting the bars and watching them fall.

"Have a memento. For what worthless pieces of junk they are."

"They're not junk."

And for once, Leo honestly thought of killing Xever on the spot given the chance. Shrugging theatrically, Xever looked back over at Leo with a smile.

"They were when he refused to kill us with it."

Leo stretched over and picked them up in both hands. They were heavier than he remembered, and as far as Fishface knew, Leo couldn't get out to harm him. Or so he thought.  
Raph's body suddenly twitched violently, electricity spasaming throughout his entire body for a couple of seconds before he opened his eyes and looked up at Leo. For a moment, it gave Leo hope. But only for a moment. The next he knew, blood gushed out of Raph's mouth and he was unmoving once again. As if his brain finally understood what his heart was going through, Leo had passed out from shock.


	3. Mikey

Mikey

A rat had run across Leo's hand and woke him to a start. The darkness enveloped him still in it's cold embrace. Groaning, his hand rose to his head as his mind tried to process everything that happened. The last thing that Xever had done was thrown him Raph's sais after he had thrown...  
His mind stopped mid-thought process. Was Raph alive that split second..?

"Raph..?" Both hands shot through the bars as he reached over to his brother. Scooting his knees closer to the edge, he felt a piece of fabric under his knee and promptly jerked it free.  
"I tore this off you, didn't I?" He spoke quietly, gently undoing the knot and proceeded to wrap it snugly around his wrist.  
"You're still my younger brother, you know that, right, Raphie?" Once more, his hands shot out of the bars and grasped onto Raph's shoulders. Finding his underarms, he gently dragged him as close as he possibly could and simply held onto him. "You're a jerk..." He murmured, squeezing his brother tight. His heartstrings painfully still when he looked from Raph to Donnie and yearned to bring him into his embrace. "You did your job as a big brother...you know that, right? You tried to protect Mikey..."

Mikey.

Leo placed a light kiss on top of Raph's head before gently laying him to his side. "I'll honor you, brother." Leo placed his sais in his belt and picked up the triangular tool once more. He was running out of time. Raph and Donnie were dead, and now all that was left was little Mikey and...no, he can't die. Not his last brother.  
Squeezing his eyes shut, he pushed the thought to the back of his mind and thought only of delving further into his concrete barricade. He wasn't stuck. He had to get angry. Get angry like Raphie used to and use his excess energy to force his way through his escape route.  
"It's not fair, Raph, you shouldn't have had to make that decision alone. You just wanted to save Mike, and I swear that they won't go unpunished. None of them will. I won't lay down and accept this." Thick, fat tears welled at the corners of his eyes. Whether they were out of sadness or anger, he couldn't quite pinpoint which, but they were a hindrance. Right now, an overwhelming blood lust threatened to consume him. They were taking his family away from him. It was unacceptable. Oh shell, what about Master Splinter? He couldn't go back alone...

"With Mikey." He mentally corrected himself aloud. Hope had slipped away from him for a brief moment, and it was enough to send chills up his spine.

"LEO!"

That voice, too, sent chills up his spine. It was faint. Muffled, rather. Once more, footprints headed his way, and he could tell that the person was running. Hiding his tool once again on the growing mound beside him, he looked towards the door and peered underneath it. His eyes flickered over to Donnie's shape very briefly before he willed himself to look away.

"LEO, DON'-"

It was definitely Mikey's voice, but it was hushed up too quickly.

"MIKEY! MIKEY, WHERE ARE YOU!?"

Hope fluttered in his chest like an angry bird trying to escape his cage. The progress behind his was quickly abandoned as he tried shaking the bars once more. There were small bouts of yelling immediately followed by silence. Leo strained his ears to try and capture anymore sound. Much to his dismay, they were gone. His hands shook the bars once more in rage.

"IF YOU DO ANYTHING TO HIM, I SWEAR!"

His body snapped back to his pile of work beside him and he began his work once more. The hole made was about the size of his fist and definitely very wet through to the other side. At this point in time, it would have been easier to use a shovel than his chipping tool. Abandoning it, he began digging through with all the rage that was welling up inside him. As desperately as he wanted to turn around and try and shake the bars loose, he knew his best bet was the soft concrete that he was working on. It was the opposite direction of where he wanted to go, but so long as it led out, he'd find a way back in and save his brother, finish the job, and bring Raph and Donnie home to Splinter.

His heart ached.

"Can't look back now..."  
He mumbled, wanting to take a look at his two fallen brothers. As much as he wanted to grieve and cry, there'd be plenty of time to do that after he brought Mikey back into safety. It was quiet now, and he knew that something had happened to him, but was it truly the worst? He didn't want to know. But he had to. To wish that they wouldn't harm Mikey now was wistful thinking. Tiger Claw and the rest hadn't spared his other brothers, why would they for the youngest?

A large gasp escaped Leo as his hand fell through the hole he had made. Wiggling his fingers, he recoiled his hand back out and let light illuminate the darkness inside his hold. It was nearly blinding, but now he had a better look at where he was. The floor was definitely cement and bars seemed extraordinarily sturdy-there was no way he'd break out from there to begin with. The concrete was fresh on the other side.  
Why? Water.  
The other side led out to the side of a hill where a puddle of water had accumulated in a gentle slope. It wasn't enough to spill into his enclave, but he figured now that they must have sealed him inside some sewer system that led out to a residential area of the sort. The sweet aroma of wet earth and stone filled his lungs.  
He had his bearings. He was somewhere in the sewer system. That meant that they were searching for Splinter. That also meant that there had to be a base of operations somewhere of the sorts. There's no way they'd drag mutant turtle bodies throughout New York just to present in front of him. Neither by rooftops, streets, or sewer passages. Turtle shells just weren't that easy to carry. He looked down at his triangular tool, his savior, and realized it to be a broken off trowel.

And now the worst...

He turned back once more to his fallen brothers. It was worse now that there was light. He hadn't seen what had happened to Raph until now. He was charred. His blood had hidden a majority of the discoloration, but he could now tell that he had been electrocuted and tortured. Donnie...he didn't want to look. No more. But his eyes betrayed his heart.  
Donnie was just as bad as he had seen. Blood and gore; his skull definitely exposed now that the blood had dried.  
Forcing down vomit, he turned away and began to scoop out handful after handful of concrete. Muffled yelling wafted down the halls and he began to work faster. At first he could fit his shoulder through and he began pushing against the mass with his body as he worked, until he got his leg through as well. The problem was his shell. He had to get through...

"LEEEEOOOOOOO-MMGFFH-"

"MIKEY! HANG ON, BRO, I'M COMING!" He began throwing his weight against the sludge now like a battering ram. He was almost through! Almost...!  
"HANG ON, I'M-"

He stumbled through the hole and onto the ground. Breathing harshly, he wiped the sweat from his brow and turned to look back at his hellhole. It was the end of a sewer pipe. He was half right. He had been sealed at the end of a sewer pipe, which would explain why it took the concrete forever to dry. The only problem was now to get to Mikey before they did anything else to him. "YOU!" Tiger Claw's voice sounded from within his holding area. Leo looked straight at him and saw him holding tightly onto Mikey's orange mask.

"What...did you do to my brother?" Leo's voice was low and demanding. Tiger Claw held up the blood-stained mask and grinned.  
"You're too late, turtle. Even if you did manage to get out, there's nothing you can do now to save your brothers." Tiger Claw's shoulders shook with laughter as he let the mask fall to the ground and stomp on it.  
Something inside Leo snapped. There weren't any tears. He just stood stock still and stared at Tiger Claw with icy blue eyes.  
"You're not lying, are you?"

"Hmph, why would I after showing you what we can do to your other two brothers?" His voice purred. Leo looked down at the tiger-man's hand and saw it stained with fresh blood.

"You killed him?"

"Well, that's a little too kindly...we had to silence him, see? All that screaming." He dragged his bloodied claw across his neck in mock imitation of what he had done to  
Mikey.

"De-vocalized him, see?"

"I see..." Tiger Claw's amusement died out quickly. He expected him to cry or lash out. He was just too...calm. It was the kind of calm he knew all too well.

"So, ready to kill me, hm?"

Leo didn't respond. He was too busy trying to keep his breathing calm. Fury had injected into his veins with his final brother's death. Tiger Claw grew uneasy, but it wasn't enough. He knew what the final push was.

"You know, your brother is still alive. Just going to have a hard time breathing for the next minute or two."  
"Those few minutes expired when you came to see me." Leo responded cooly, now looking over at Tiger Claw behind his cage and it was his turn to smirk. "You kinda look like a boxed kitty in there."

He wanted to see Leo break, but not like this. Leo had saved himself too late to save his brothers-he was supposed to break down, not completely snap. "I'm coming for my brothers, Tiger Claw. Don't move. I'm coming for you too."

Thunder rolled in the darkening clouds overhead. The exchange, though brief, was a threatening one. Tiger Claw felt threatened. He was just a boy, what damage could he do? It wasn't as if he really had snapped out of reality.

Or had he?

"What are you planning to do, hm, turtle? Kill me?"  
"Yes."  
Leo's hands traveled up to the sais in his belt and he held onto them firmly. "You'll pay."

Mikey was the last of his anchors. The bright, baby-blue eyed brother of his was gone. His light was snuffed out of the world, and Tiger Claw was to blame. He ripped his throat. Sure, Mikey could get annoying at times. He was a prankster, a happy-go-lucky person, and above all, an incredible ninja. No one else could care for an ice-cream cat the way he could. No one could tame a fully-grown alligator with such familiarity and tenderness as his brother had. He was truly one of a kind.  
And just like that, his breath was stolen from him just because he was Master Splinter's pupil. His son. This whole event could have been avoided if they had just given up Master Splinter...

His brothers would be saved. Every single one of them.

"That almost sounds threatening."  
"It should. I'll make sure to stuff you when I'm through. I heard Taxidermy is pretty tough to learn, but my master said I'm actually a fast learner."

Even Tiger Claw knew that this wasn't the Hamato turtle he had once fought. He was different. In fact, he could fit in quite nicely with Shredder in the state he was in.  
"You know, boy, Master Shredder could use your blade at his side."  
"Or in his side. I'll see you soon, Tiger Claw. Don't run too far. I'm out of patience."  
Leo leapt up onto the sewer exit and began his way back towards his lair. Some things just needed a bit of preparation before jumping in at it headfirst.


	4. Leo

Leo

Silence had overtaken the lair. Leo had passed through each of his brothers bedrooms and casually glanced around with forlorn eyes. As he had known, they were vacant.  
His brothers were gone, and he felt nothing.  
Making his way over to the dojo in search of his sensei, he found that he, too, was missing. Hanging his head, he walked to the ancient tree sprouting there and placed his hand on the trunk, exhaling slowly with his eyes closed. Hours upon hours of training with his brothers, beating them up, lessons and words of wisdom being grilled into their ninja code under this very tree. Fragments of memories flashed across his eyes. His life was in this very sewers and shared with his brothers.

Remnants of their last actions in their home remained. Raph's beaten up punching bag hung stock still in the corner with his tape atop a stool nearby. Donnie's practice bo-staves lined the walls, some being worked upon and improved so he could always have the edge over his opponents. Then there was Mikey's space. It was just a bunch of turn-style training dummies which he whacked about with his nunchucks with a small radio nearby. And Leo's place, where he stood right now, under the very ancient tree, he meditated with incense. He reflected often on his position as leader and how he would better his role for his brothers. He'd be the exact leader they needed. It was supposed to be that way, anyways.

A waft of spicy incense broke his concentration and he opened his eyes, gazing down at the unlit incense sticks at his feet. Reaching down, he plucked up the box of nearby matches and struck one alight. Lighting three sticks, one for each of his brothers, he took a step back and bowed in a wordless prayer. He would avenge them.  
With that, he proceeded to the weapons cabinet and took hold of various tools and equipment until he lined his belt with all that he would need. Throwing knives, shuriken, grappling hooks, rope, smoke bombs, climbing grapples and finally, last but not least, his swords. Sliding them onto his back, he took a final look at the dojo over his shoulder and made his way out. Whether or not he'd make it back, he wasn't sure. This was, after all, his final goodbye. He was ready, come hell or high water, to avenge his brothers by whatever means necessary.

* * *

Rain had been falling for what felt like hours. Vicious looking clouds rolled in thick, cascading waves and brought about violent strikes of lightning along with it. Darkness had fallen quickly, and the twilight hours were upon the citizens of New York city.  
Leonardo had returned to his sewer exit and hid amongst the bushes, watching as Footbots worked to clear his mess. Eventually, they had finished up and began making their way back to where they came from. Taking instant action, Leo followed as closely as he could without alerting them. It didn't take long for them to come to a half around a manhole cover and pile inside. They were far from the lair, but they were in the sewers nonetheless, and that didn't sit right with the leader-of-no-one whatsoever.

Giving the area a quick scan, he followed suite. As soon as his feet touched the murky bottom of the sewers, he was greeted with rows upon rows of bright lights. They had the entire sewer system set up with floodlights and lightbulbs strung along cords all along the main paths. Drawing his swords, he began the manhunt. His eyes flickered from left to right as he counted how many entrances he had to cover, and decided that it was best to go into the ones that were lit up, first of all. What struck him as bizarre was that the footbots were nowhere to be seen. It was as if they had simply vanished the moment they landed. He'd have to keep his guard up.

Walking down the main passage, shoulders bunched up and eyes as sharp as a hawk's, he noticed that each room was unique. One held powered off bots, another had been an equipment room, the next a dark room, and surprisingly, one more held more secrets that he thought possible. Curiosity piqued, he turned to the right and entered. All around him were rows upon rows of cannistered mutagen specimens. The room wasn't lit, perhaps to keep the specimens cool, but the room after was. Pushing through the channel, he came across a room that made his eyes widen. It was a surgical room of sorts. Or an experimental? He wasn't sure what to call it. Tables and surgical equipment lay everywhere, but so did cages and haphazardly strewn weapons and equipment.  
A chill ran up his spine.  
He had to push forwards, but the signs bode ill with him.  
The door to the next room was made of plastic tarp instead of being fully visible. Sticking his sword through and pushing it aside to walk through, his foot crunched upon something hard and sharp. Looking down, he realized it to be of familiar material caked in blood-carapace. Donnie's shell. A surge of anger rushed through him as he looked around the torture room. Giant clippers lay against the wall with a row of several knives and wooden sticks. Manacles chained to the wall off in the water had told him a tale he wish hadn't formed in his mind. The waters below still had small pools of blood swirling about with giblets of flesh and carapace. The area was greatly illuminated by three floodlights set inside the room, the fourth had been unplugged and its extension cord dipped in the water. Probably how Raph had been killed.

Huh. What a casual thought. Probably because the thought of going after Tiger Claw brought him more comfort than he thought possible.

Another room, not too far ahead, was another tarped off room. Once more, he allowed his swords to lead the way as he entered. The sight before him made him gag. Retching backwards, he covered his nose and felt bile rise up his throat. He couldn't stop the coughs from escaping him followed by continuous gags. There, wide-eyed and scared looking, lay Michelangelo. His body lay carelessly and loosely on the table. His head, an arm, and leg hung lifelessly off the table. His face, thanks to the large gashes across his neck, had been stained red with blood that had flowed upside down and fallen into a puddle beneath him. The blood followed the cracks in the stone until it flowed into the waterway just beside the table, flowing out to wherever sewer systems did. Finally, the gagging had wrought upon Leo violent bouts of throwing up as he fell to his knees. His baby brother lay before him dead. He didn't deserve this. He didn't deserve any harm that befell him and yet...

"Finally made your way back, hm?"

An intercom system played Tiger Claw's voice. Leo wanted to retort back in anger, but he couldn't control his dry heaving.  
"Sorry, didn't mean to leave him just...hanging..." He laughed at his own joke. Leo gnashed his teeth and looked back at his masked brother. He was pale and definitely had been dead for a while, but the look of absolute fear had been carved into his face unto death.

"Come, turtle, there's a place for you with Shredder! Your master is with us right now. Without his sons, he has nothing left to live for!"

"LIAR!" Leo brought himself to stand woozily. "Master Splinter would never give himself up!"

"I haven't lied to you this far, turtle. Rethink your proposition before you throw away your life too." Leo's blood bubbled with the severity of a thousand maelstroms. Hands shaking, his fingers tightened around his katanas with a stronger resolve. He found Mikey. Now, he just had to find Tiger Claw and his other brothers and bring them home.

"Come out, Tiger Claw. Face me, you honorless dirtbag! I'll SLICE YOU!" He had yelled his final words as he looked back to Mikey's neck. Laughter echoed throughout the sewer system and Leo began to retrace his steps back out in a sprint. He'd come back for Mikey's body later. Cradle and love it with the tenderness that it deserved later. If he'd make it back, that is. He was more than willing to die to get his revenge.

It's what Raph would have done.

Turning back down the main chasm, the other entrances to different parts of the channel rushed by him and seemed to all be the wrong one. Kraang experiments began showing up the further he went along. Though they seemed to tantalize his curiosity, he couldn't sate it.

"TURTLE!"

Not until Tiger Claw was dead.

Leo slid to a halt and stopped to catch his breath for a moment. He had passed Tiger Claw in a nexus with his arms crossed and waiting for him. Body held tall, Leonardo walked back over to where his nemesis awaited him. Standing at the end of the tunnel, he sized up the beast. Typically, he'd never want to get into a fight with him. The odds were stacked way too much in his favor. But that didn't matter tonight. Tonight, it was do or die.

"This is the end, Tiger Claw."

"You didn't think on the request, did you?"

"I didn't have to." Leo spat back, approaching Tiger Claw with a ferocity he never felt before.

'Be like Donnie.' He thought to himself, and scanned the room for vantage points. Holding his katanas out in front of him, he scowled deeply and breathed in his anger. 'Be Raph.' The water flowed ferociously down the walls around them. It had to be a main water drainage pipe that allowed the storm's waters to flow through the city. 'Fluid, like Mikey.' He loosened his muscles and waited with the patience only Leo had.

"You think you can beat me?"

"I'm not thinking of sparing you tonight. Even a cut will hurt you," his blades caught the light as he pointed one at him, "and so even if I cut you a few times, you will be crippled enough for me to kill you."

Tiger Claw growled and pulled out his guns. He didn't like this Leonardo. He seemed too capable. He was a boy, but even boys would be deadly if they had nothing left to lose.

"One last chance, turtle. Surrender yourself to the Shredder."

There was no hesitation as Leo rushed Tiger Claw and swiped at his neck and knees. Dodging the attack, Tiger Claw spun out of the way and tried to kick Leo with him. Seeing the attack at the last possible moment, the blue-banded turtle ducked, dropped one katana, and grabbed his hidden knife inside his sword; stabbing Tiger Claw through the foot.  
The beast let out a primal roar and rolled out of the way. His gun rose and he shot a few times at the turtle to see him dance out of each attack as if he could see it in slow motion. Taking advantage of the distance that was between them, Tiger Claw pulled the knife out and rushed Leo once more with more gunfire. Leo danced from left to right as he tried to close the gap between them.  
With his one katana poised in the air in a bushido style, he slid under Tiger Claw's legs and ended up behind him. Fear grew in the man's chest as he turned, not expecting such a bold move from a young boy, and felt a fiery burst of pain engulf him. Falling backwards onto his side, he realized that Leonardo held his tail stub in one hand and his katana in his other.

It was sickening, actually, to see how much he underestimated him, and he paid a grave price. Leo studied the stub curiously before discarding it to the rushing waters behind him.  
"You actually meant it when you said you'd kill me. I didn't think you had the guts."  
Sweat formed on his brow as he hid his pain. He hadn't realized how serious the kid was. "It is the ninja way, you know? To destroy everything from your previous life as you enter a new clan. Your brothers had to go."

"Your tail did too. I'm actually surprised that you kept it showing. What a sign of weakness."

There wasn't much of the tail left to begin with, but he even managed to take that and turn it into a strength for him. Taking a few steps forwards, Leo poised with his singular katana, he scanned the man once more for a weakness.

Taking this moment of reprieve, Tiger Claw pounced onto Leonardo and disarmed him and began attacking him. Fists beat down on his face a few times before he took hold of his gun and pressed it against the turtle's shoulder and shooting in one fluid movement. He couldn't treat him so gently as he used to. Picking him up from his wrists, he held him high in the air and brought his body down on the ground and threw him against the wall. Trying to take advantage of his own speed, he aimed his gun and took a few more potshots.  
Leo had taken one more shot straight to his plastron and the rest missed. Dropping his katana as he fell into the water, he bounced straight out, both hands full of throwing knives. Throwing them with all the force he had and forcing Tiger Claw to avoid them all, he closed the gap between them once more and pulled out Raph's sais. Holding them firmly in both hands, he flipped to get behind Tiger Claw once again. The beast roared and spun around, teeth and claws bared as he swiped for the leader. Ultimately, it was his own undoing.  
Leo had side-stepped to his left side and drove a sai deep into his already bad eye while the other sai had dug painfully into his tail wound. Another roar forced its way out of Tiger Claw. Out of desperation, he swiped at Leo once more, leaving a large gash wounds on his arm. The sheer power of the swipe sent Leo sailing off into the wall, nearly losing grip of the sais, while Tiger Claw made his way back topside. He wasn't dealing with a regular turtle anymore. He wasn't prepared, and he was too wounded.

"You running now!? Even wounded animals fight back!"  
Leo shouted after him as he coughed out mouthfuls of water. Pride welled in his chest. He was actually going to do it. So began his hunt for the tiger. The pain was temporary. No matter what happened to him, it would be temporary. His brothers' deaths were permanent, and he had to pay for that.

Charging after Tiger Claw down the chasm and uphill, he found a second wind blossoming from within. It was almost exciting to chase down his prey and he began to understand what it must feel like for the bad guys for once.  
He was the bad guy now, wasn't he? The good guys don't kill. They just subdue or jail the bad guys. But now? Leo felt like a monster. Only a monster could chase down another monster, and that's what Tiger Claw was.

The path wound in circles until it led out to another exit much like the one he was sealed in. However, this one had the bars pried open. It was probably the way they got their equipment in. Breathing in the outside air, he watched Tiger Claw trying to make his way towards the buildings and give him cover. His mind raced and he reached into his belt pocket, pulling out a handful of caltrops. His foot was already hurt, stepping on one would bring him excruciating pain and debilitate him.

And that's just what happened.

As soon as the caldrops scattered on the ground, Tiger Claw's feet made full contact with them and sent him spiraling forwards in pain. Leonardo let out a yell and leapt onto him, his knee making contact with his diaphragm. Leo brought up a sai and with a yell, drove it down with all the power he had on Tiger Claw's chest, garnering a yell unlike he'd ever heard before-he never before had any intent on killing anyone. The moment had caused him to briefly stop in shock and reevaluate the man beneath him. He was already beaten. He already gravely wounded him. What good would come from killing him? It wouldn't bring his brothers back...He could hold back the monster growling in his own chest and egging on to kill him. He still had a chance to be Leonardo.  
Breathing harshly in the rain, he took a moment's reprieve and clutched tightly onto the last sai in his hand.

"The orange one..." Tiger Claw began, blood bubbling over his lips as he spoke. Leo knew right away he had punctured a lung. "The orange one was so sweet...to kill..." He choked on laughter, "it was a great pleasure...to silence him."

Leo's eyes turned into slits as he rose Raph's sai high above his head and yelled.  
He snapped. He had reached his break point.

He brought it down in one swift movement, aimed for his forehead. He wanted him dead. He wanted him to suffer for as long as he let his brothers suffer. Death was too easy. He wanted him to feel each moment pass before he died. To feel as horribly as each brother did.  
More than anything, he wanted his own pain to be eased. With this, he wouldn't sleep easy, no night would be easy alone, but at least his brothers would be avenged!

"LEO, _NO_!"

The voice had stopped his maniac train of thought and the sai stopped mere millimeters from its target.

A hand gently wrapped around his own and gingerly pried the sai away from him. Tiger Claw had passed out sometime during his mind's chaos. Lightning struck nearby, blinding him momentarily in a white light. For a moment, his mind had to process the hand once again, and then it became clear.  
It was a green, three-fingered hand that had pried away the sai. Blinking a few times, he looked up into the face of Raphael.

Alive.

Gasping a bit, he stumbled backwards off Tiger Claw and stared in awe and wonder at his brother's red mask. Quickly, he looked down at the mask wrapped around his wrist belonging still to Raph as well and tore it off in one quick movement. Backing away from the situation, breathing quickened and uneven, he saw Raph toss the sai off to the side. On Raph's belt hung another set sais as well.

"Raph...? No...I..."

"Leo?" Donatello's voice suddenly manifested from behind Leo, forcing him to quickly spin around. His eyes fell upon Donnie, and to his left, Mikey. They weren't unharmed, but they weren't dead.

A lump formed in his throat as he staggered backwards from the scene once more, bumping into a soft body. Out of reflex, he swung behind him only to feel a gentle hand stop the hit from doing any damage. Looking up at the gentle figure, he saw Splinter standing there quietly.

"I don't...I don't understand...you're all dead...am I dead too?" He felt the holes in his skin, gasping in pain. Okay, not dead. But that meant...

"Bro, just calm down, nobody's gotta get hurt."

"You aren't Mikey...shut up!" Leo reached for his shruiken and threw them at his younger brother's image. Donnie quickly jumped in front and deflected each and every one of them.

"That was sloppy..." Donnie mused, relieved. Leo looked down at Tiger Claw slowly dying in front of him, and the urge to finish the job dissipated all at once.

"I thought you were smarter, Leo." Raph was obviously ticked off. "You saw stupid Kraang clones in there. Like, remember the one time they tried cloning April? That sick, goopy stuff the clones were made of?" Slowly, Leo nodded. Then the discrepancies all came flooding to him. Tiger Claw had Mikey's band in his cell, but then it was on the Mikey on the table. The wooden sticks on the wall were just that-wooden sticks. Tiger Claw had laid out Donnie's staff inside his cell. The sais he had were sharp. Like, knife-sharp. Raph's were blunted off from practice and wear and tear. The trowel he had found was placed there. They wanted him to dig his way out. They wanted him to succeed...

"I don't...I don't understand...the clones...if they were clones...they didn't turn to goop. They didn't change."

The walls of mutagen came to mind. The sheer amount of power they were pumping into an underground operation was too much for the Foot to use-it was Kraang technology. It definitely was Kraang...

"Oroku Saki went through extreme lengths to try and break you to join him." Splinter spoke. Leo looked up and saw deep, deep sorrow in his eyes. Leo shook his head. It wasn't true. They weren't that desperate for him, were they?

"Why?" He croaked out, Splinter approaching him. Leo quickly went to draw another hidden knife and held it up, shaking his hand. "Don't...don't come closer...please." He held his hands up, eyes turning downcast as he thought at a million miles a minute.

Everything was a ruse?

"You thought we were dead?" Mikey asked in an almost innocent voice, snapping Leo's head back up to look at him. He grit his teeth and nodded, tears welling in his eyes now.

They were alive. Actually alive?

"They did not expect you to do this." Splinter pointed at Tiger Claw with his cane and then sighed heavily, his shoulders sagging, "and neither did I."

Those words stung worse than any physical wound that was inflicted on him. Swallowing hard, he pointed the blade at each of his brothers and backed away once more, this time back towards the sewers. "How do I know you're not fake either!?" He asked out loud, his knees suddenly shaking. He wanted them to be real. Please, be real...

"Your really expensive comics are still kept in the sleeve behind a couple of bricks in your wall." Raph grinned from ear to ear and shrugged, "easy peasy. I found them when looking for your action figures I knew you had hid too."

"You went through my room!?" Leo shouted, his face flushing with embarrassment. They were real. They weren't fakes. They weren't whatever Kraang experiment they had concocted for the Shredder's personal gain.

"Heck yeah! Even found-hey, don't...don't do that." Leo had begun shaking violently. Thick globules of tears had trickled out of his eyes. He tried holding them back, but it was futile. The knife fell from his hand onto the rain-slick grass. Leonardo felt small and tired. Exhausted, even. Donnie had taken a few steps towards him, holding out a hand in front of him to make sure that Leo knew he meant no harm. However to Leo, it meant that Donnie didn't trust him. Why would he? He attacked Mikey.

He tried to kill Tiger Claw.

A large crashing noise came from the exit behind them. Leo turned towards the source of the noise and was met with a face full of metal. Sailing backwards, he slid on the grass and mud until he came to a stop beside Tiger Claw. "Couldn't handle one turtle..." He muttered indignantly. The fish-man came to a halt when he noted the full Hamato family standing in a wide circle around him.

"Take your wounded and get out of here." Splinter leaned down and plucked an unconscious Leo from the grass, pulling him backwards until Raph picked up his feet. "Unless Saki is content with his best dying from a simple stab wound."  
Xever's face contorted in displeasure. Before he had a chance to reply, Mikey and Donnie joined up with the rest of their family and released a smoke bomb, disappearing into the stormy night.

* * *

**AN: Epilogue coming up**


	5. Hamato

Hamato

Leo's sai had pierced Tiger Claw's forehead. A rush of adrenaline coursed through his veins. Addicted to the feeling, he brought the sai up once again and drove it into Tiger Claw's face over and over again. There was no one to stop him now. Raph wasn't there to collect his sai from him. Now he could reap all the vengeance he thought was rightfully his. For Donnie, for Raph, and for sweet little Mikey. Even as the beast man's face became unrecognizable, he couldn't bring himself to stop. Hysterical laughter took over him as he watched brains and ribbons of flesh tear and flay off.

This wasn't right. He had to stop. With every ounce of force he had in his body, he tried to stop massacring the face that once belonged to his nemesis in vain. It was as if his mind was separated from his body. There was just no correlation between the two anymore. Tears spilled down his cheeks as he did the only thing possible and watched. At one point in time, he wasn't even sure what he was stabbing into anymore; it resembled raw minced meat. He truly was a monster, wasn't he?

"Still having fun?"

The meaty face spoke. From where, Leo wasn't sure, but it drove him wild. He drove the sai in where Tiger Claw's mouth should have been and began slicing downwards and diagonally. Tiger Claw's hand grasped onto Leo's shell and threw him off to the side and stood up. Giblets and blood fell from the mass of muscle that used to be his face. Leo's blood-stained arm rose as he ran towards Tiger Claw in a direct line.

"STOP!" Leo yelled at his body, desperately trying to reconnect the two.

"IT'S OVER, STOP! STOP!" The body continued on still, the sai plunging deep within the unresponsive Tiger Claw and continually stabbing his chest. In a panic, Leo tried to move his limbs in attempt to at least hold himself back. The dissonance of it all terrorized him. How was it that the best he could do was move his eyes?

"I'M SORRY, JUST STOP!" He yelled. Realizing that his voice only reverberated throughout his mind, he grew numb. Still, he had to try. Letting out a yell, he suddenly felt a mass weigh down on him. "-p." Someone, or something, was fighting back against him. "NO!"

"Wake-"

* * *

"-UP!"  
Leonardo's eyes snapped open as he gasped loudly for air. Wide-eyed and terrified, he found a pair of green eyes staring back directly over him, though one sported a dark ring around it. His breathing was raspy and uneven, as if he had just been through a battle.

"Raph...?"

"Yeah, knucklehead, it's me." He replied, "you gonna settle down if I let you go?" Looking off to the sides, Leo realized that Raph had his arms pinned way out to his sides. A moment of claustrophobia washed over him and he suddenly wanted to thrash once more, but nodded instead. Breathing a sigh of relief, Raph recoiled from his brother and put his hand to his blackened eye. Leo stared at him for a few moments before sitting up, letting out a hiss of pain.

"Donnie bandaged you up. You thrashing around and hollerin' in your sleep made you tear open some stitches."  
Guilt stabbed him as he looked over his bandages now seeping through with scarlet blood. Sighing, he mumbled a small "sorry."

"Shell-for-brains..." Raph retorted lightly with a frown. He stood up and looked over at his older brother flexing his fingers a few times in front of him. It was almost as if he was trying to see if they actually worked.

"So...what was the nightmare about?" Raph asked, scooting over beside his big brother and leaned on the edge of his bed. Distant and withdrawn, Leo pulled himself beside Raph with unease and shrugged his shoulder. "Stupid stuff."

"Well, it ain't so stupid if it's got you worked up." A smile scrawled out across the older brother's face as he gently pushed Raph with his good arm. "You actually care-whoa..." Raph's arm slung around Leo's neck as he shook his head, keeping all eye contact away from him. He wouldn't say that he cared, but the gestures were all there.

"Well you gonna say or do I gotta get Mikey?"

"N-no! Ah...no. Let him sleep." His face withdrew back in a pained expression. The haunting image of him laying across the metal table with his throat ripped open was still fresh in his memory. Brushing it aside, he let out a drawn out breath.

"You weren't there to stop me from finishing off Tiger Claw..." Leo began, earning a tightening arm hug from his brother. "I didn't stop, Raph. I absolutely mutilated him and had no control over what I was doing..." Raph was silent. He asked, but now that he knew, he didn't know what to say.

"Back...there..." Leo gestured outwards, not towards anything particular, "I thought that I'd lost you guys. And I..." Tears welled up in his eyes as he stopped. He felt Raph's arm give him a light squeeze. It was comforting yet also hard to believe that none of that was actually real.

"We ran into Fishface, yanno?" Raph spoke up, standing up and holding out his hand for his brother to take. Leo took it gratefully and felt Raph haul him up in one go, holding back a pained wince. "Yeah?"

"Yeah. You know we were worried about you, bro. You'd been missing for a day, and even sensei went out to look for you. When we questioned him, sensei let him go and he led us straight to you."

"No hassle, huh?"

"Nope." Leo sat on his bed again, thankful to feel that instead of the cold cement ground. "We didn't know where to look for you. All we knew was that Shredder had some stupid plan to turn you against us. I don't know why, or for what reason, but sensei thinks that it's because he wants to set an example or some crap." Raph opened Leo's door with a shrug and turned back to him. "I'll get the others. They wanted me to know when you woke up. Maybe get some answers out of you if you're feeling well."  
In all honesty, Leo didn't know if he could stomach seeing the others again so soon. Blue eyes locking with green, all that he could see were the charred lines from the Raphael clone that he had encountered.

"Raph, I-"

"Coooooming through, Doctor Prankenstein, PhD, is cooooooming through!"  
Mikey had launched himself inside Leo's room and hopped on top of Leo's bed and hugged him tightly from behind. All his muscles tensed at his touch, but he was relieved. This wasn't the Mikey with an oozing neck. Donnie, on the other hand, approached him with more care than the youngest brother. With a tsk, he leaned down and touched the bandages encircling his wounds. "You been taking lessons from Raph or did you forget how to be careful?"  
A quick snort of laughter escaped Leo before he had a chance to stop it. If only he knew.

"I'm glad you're all okay..."

"Yeah, well, you scared us out of our shells, yanno?" Mikey scolded, rubbing his cheek against Leo's affectionately. "Even Raphie stayed beside you this whole time because he was worried."  
They were alive and well. They weren't even hurt (besides Raph's black eye, which Leo knew he must have given him when tossing around in his sleep). They were okay. But worst of all, they were worried for him. A good leader should never have his followers worry about them. Especially since they were his brothers. Here they were, coddling him and giving him the support he needed, when it was ultimately that-his love for his brothers- that nearly caused him to kill a man. That wasn't who he was. That wasn't Leo.

Or...wasn't it?

"I'm really glad...that..." Leo broke down. Sobbing, he planted his face in his hands. Man, how he wished that they didn't see him in the state he was in, but it was just so..._relieving_.

"Aww, dude, it's okay to cry. We'll cry with you. Right Donnie? Right?" Small rivulets of tears had already made their way down Mikey's cheeks. His childish demeanor vanished momentarily as he hugged his brother tightly, planting his head in the crook of his neck. Donnie dropped to his knees and placed his hand on Leo's head, pressing his own against it and held back his own tears. Watching with a sniff, Raph stood beside the door almost as if he was standing guard. It was only when Splinter approached him did he rub his nose and nod towards Leo.

"He's uh..." he cleared his voice, "he's up." Smiling knowingly, Splinter placed a hand on Raph's head and gave him a gentle nod.

"Thank you, my son. You did very well."

"Yeah well...someone's gotta pick up the slack when Fearless can't."

The comment nearly made Leo's heart burst. He was far from fearless. He had too much to lose. It almost broke him. It DID break him. The seed of fear had been always planted in his heart from bearing the burden of responsibility on his shoulders, and it was made manifest by Tiger Claw.

"Dude, SO not cool right now!" Mikey shot to Raph, pointing an accusing finger at him. "We're kinda having a moment here!"

"Yeah well, me too." Raph's chest huffed out. Splinter let out a sigh and escorted him close once again, Donnie standing up and letting them get close while wiping a few stray tears with his palm. "Leonardo, what you have went through was a testament to how far you will go to keep your family safe. And for that, I'm sure that you have suffered greatly."  
Kneeling down in front of Leo, Splinter wrapped his arms completely around his son and let out a shuddering breath. "I am so sorry...it is because you are my son that you must suffer through such an old rivalry between myself and Saki." Without thinking, Leo wrapped his arms around his father in a manner only a child would, and buried his face in his robes.

"Whatever happened, Leonardo, know that you are safe here. You are home."

"I know."

Exhaustion was taking over him. His tears ebbed, but his heart was still sore. "In time, you can tell us of what happened. But for now, I think it is safe to assume that you wish to rest and heal." Splinter felt Leo nod and then pull away, letting out a shaky sigh. His eyes were beat red from crying so hard and nose runny, but he felt tons better.

"Alright, so sleepover in Leo's room!? What? Blanket fort! Heck yeah I'm down!"

"Mikey, I think Leo needs some rest, like sensei said." Donnie tried to yank an excited Mikey from jumping on Leo's bed. Letting out a strangled laugh, Leo wiped at his eyes and shrugged lightly. "Sure, why not?"

"AWW YEAH! You guys heard that? Leo's doooown! I'm gonna get my underwear!"

"Mikey, if you wear those around me I swear..."

Raph's threats were back. Mikey's childish antics had continued, and Donnie's eye-rolls had made their glorious comeback in full sarcasm. But when Leo's eyes met with Splinter's, he knew that something had changed inside them. While his three brothers ran off to get the midnight party supplies, Leo had leaned over his knees and hung his head in shame.

"I'm not going to be the same to you now, will I?"

"No." Splinter's reply was sharp and cold. It hurt.

"I can kill."

"You can kill." Splinter echoed with a nod, his grip on his cane tightening. "And you would have."

"I know." The silence in the air hung heavily in between them, he could almost taste it.

"How did it feel?"

"Compelling. Awful. I was on adrenaline. His life was in my hands, and I would have taken it from him because I thought he..."

Leo swallowed the growing lump in his throat again, digging the palms of his hands roughly into his eyes as he rubbed at them furiously.

"He didn't just kill them, sensei. He slaughtered them. What would you have done?"  
Leo looked up at Splinter with questioning eyes. His jaw clenched as he held back tears and searched his master's eyes for an answer to his question.

"The same."

Splinter's reply brought no comfort to Leo as his brothers piled into his bedroom with popcorn, blankets, pillows, and couch cushions.

* * *

**AN: Thank you to everyone who stuck with this story until the end! I hope you enjoyed it! Thanks to the constant reviewers too C: Really is nice knowing that people are eager to read your stuff. Until next time!**


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